Electoral campaigns in post–Ben Ali's Tunisia

Abstract

The fieldwork this chapter is based on was funded by the ERC WAFAW. I would also like to thank Zoe Petkanas and Hugo Bouvard for their efficient proofreading, as well as the coordinators of the book for their insightful suggestions. This chapter addresses electoral campaigning in post-Ben Ali’s Tunisia. Based on a series of interviews and observations mostly lead before, during and after the 2014 elections, it argues that elections after the flee of Ben Ali and dissolution of his party, the RCD, are key moments to grasp the continuity and adjustments of former practices to the new context of political pluralism. It showcases the campaign as a key moment for new political actors to build up and to professionalize. Their need for electoral expertise brings them to imitate one another and to recruit former RCD members at various levels of the party. This mimetic dynamic leads to an important circulation of political practices: most candidates act the same and run their campaigns the same way. This phenomenon impacts a great deal on the way political cleavages are defined and mobilized throughout the elections: if the main two parties seem to oppose themselves on the place of religion in the public space, both of them conjure up religious references as well as patriotism as two sources of political legitimacy during meetings. It also casts a new light on electoral clientelism, which disseminates broadly yet does not strengthen political mobilisation. Conversely, it increases voters’ demobilisation, outlines the quick erosion of the legitimacy of the new political actors, and foregrounds one of the main changes brought by the revolution: clientelism is not accepted in the same way as it was before 2011.